Ottawa, ON (unceded Algonquin Anishnaabeg Territory) – Today, Joey Toutsaint, an Indigenous person in federal custody, asked the Supreme Court of Canada to hear his case about unethical health care in prisons.

Mr. Toutsaint has been in federal prison for most of his adult life and has spent more than 2,000 days in segregation. In March 2019, a nurse went to Mr. Toutsaint’s cell door to give him medication, and when she refused to show him the empty medication packet, he swore at her and threatened to self-harm. The nurse then initiated a disciplinary charge against him, which could have resulted in up to thirty days of segregation as a penalty.

Mr. Toutsaint made a complaint to the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association (SNRA), arguing that the nurse violated her ethical duties to act in the best interest of her patient and to not participate in punitive measures. The SRNA dismissed the complaint without addressing the core health ethics questions it raised about the nurse’s role as a disciplinarian. The Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench and Court of Appeal both dismissed Mr. Toutsaint’s case. He is now asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear his appeal.

Mr. Toutsaint states: “Everyone, including people in prison, deserves respectful and ethical health care. How can I trust my health care providers if they are involved in punishing me?”

Pierre Hawkins, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, states: “People in federal prisons are excluded from universal health care. Instead, their health care is provided by Correctional Service Canada, the same agency that incarcerates them. Given the dual loyalties of prison health care providers, people in prison face a unique and serious risk of receiving unethical health care.”

Dr. Martha Paynter, Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick and the Director of Research for Wellness Within, states: “As nurses, we have an ethical duty to put our patients’ interests first. We must recognize the inherent harm of prison environments, the extreme stress prisoners experience, and do everything in our power to alleviate patient suffering and promote wellbeing. In general, nursing school curricula inadequately address the danger of dual loyalty in prison workplaces, and nurses are underinformed about their ethical obligations in these spaces. This case is an important teaching moment for the profession.”

Dr. Ruth Elwood Martin, Clinical Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, states: “Health care providers working in prisons need support to provide trauma-informed, culturally safe and ethical care. And, as this case shows, health care regulators must not abdicate their duty to address important questions about health care ethics in prisons.”

Jessica Magonet, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, states: “This case demonstrates the critical need for health services in prisons to be administered independently by health authorities. As long as prisons are in charge of health care, professional independence and ethics will be compromised.”

Mr. Toutsaint is represented in this litigation by Pierre Hawkins of the John Howard Society of Saskatchewan and Jessica Magonet of Prisoners’ Legal Services.

You learn more about Mr. Toutsaint’s experience in federal prison here: https://www.aptnnews.ca/ourstories/insidecorrections/

You can read Mr. Toutsaint’s leave application here.

Media Contacts:
• Jessica Magonet, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, at jmagonet@pls-bc.ca or 604-636-0470
• Pierre Hawkins, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, at phawkins@sk.johnhoward.ca or 306-551-5605
• Martha Paynter, Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick and the Director of Research for Wellness Within, at martha.paynter@gmail.com or 902-292-7082

Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, BC) – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) made submissions on behalf of the family of Kendal Campeau to the Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) National Board of Investigations in relation to his death at the age of 31 at Pacific Institution on November 14, 2021 from methadone toxicity.

Mr. Campeau was a member of the Yellow Quill First Nation and grew up in Saskatchewan. His death in the custody of CSC adds to the long list of Indigenous people who have died in colonial prisons in Canada.

In our submissions, we urge CSC to consider Mr. Campeau’s death in prison as part of Canada’s history of forcibly separating Indigenous families and the mass incarceration of Indigenous peoples. Mr. Campeau’s life and death represent many of the systemic issues experienced by Indigenous people in prison, including classification to higher levels of security, having his “Indigenous Social History” used against him, transfer to prisons far away from his family and community, the use of prolonged solitary confinement, and violent assaults and abuse by correctional officers or facilitated by officers.

He was transferred away from his family in Saskatchewan to BC in 2019 after he was violently assaulted in prison. In BC he was violently assaulted again and placed in a Structured Intervention Unit before being transferred to Pacific Institution. On November 14, 2021 he was found unresponsive in his cell. He was taken to outside hospital and then returned to the prison, where he died later the same day.

Mr. Campeau had a long history of being harmed by colonial systems. Although he came from a loving family and did not experience any abuse in his home, he was removed from his family and placed in foster care at the age of 10. His mother unsuccessfully attempted to regain custody. He spent time in group homes, where he was abused, including by being forcibly held down in restraints. At the age of 12 a police dog attacked him and tore his arm.

In adult custody, Mr. Campeau suffered extensive abuse by correctional officers. His sister, Ashley Fontaine, wrote about her brother’s reporting of one incident when he was sexually assaulted by correctional officers:

“Kendal said that the guards ‘pissed in a mop bucket’ and told him to mop his cell with the urine in the pail. He refused and began swearing at the guards. He then became overwhelmed with emotions and you can hear it in his voice. Kendal said, ‘I fought back Doll. I wasn’t going to mop my cell with pissy water, fuck that shit. I pissed one of the guards off, so he kicked over the mop water, spilling all over in my cell’. Kendal then went on to say that what the guard did by spilling the pail in the cell, had angered him and then started ‘swinging punches’. Kendal said that at this point the guards rushed him, tackled him down and beat ‘the shit out of me’. Kendal started crying on the phone with me as he mentioned what they did to him next. He said they pulled his pants down and shoved the mop stick ‘up his ass’. He was raped by the guards wielding the stick. Kendal told me he couldn’t ‘shit or sit for weeks[‘] while he was down in the hole [segregation] due to the damage from the rape.”

Ashely notes that Mr. Campeau spoke about this incident in a voicemail he left for her approximately one week before he died.

Mr. Campeau’s records indicate that he attempted suicide while being held in segregation in 2019. Medical staff believed he had been sexually assaulted, and his records note he was found crying in the shower, having slashed his arm and thigh severely enough to require treatment at outside hospital. Prior to this incident, CSC health providers had repeatedly signed off on Mr. Campeau’s continued isolation.

Mr. Campeau also reported to his sister that a correctional officer gave him a razor blade and “tormented him into thinking that he was a waste of life and encouraged him to end his life,” and that guards would stand there and watch as he cut his arms and legs.

PLS has received several reports from incarcerated people about CSC correctional officers encouraging them to kill themselves and sometimes giving them razor blades.

Mr. Campeau submitted grievances about his mistreatment but CSC’s responses were cursory.

PLS encourages CSC to thoroughly investigate Mr. Campeau’s treatment in its custody as part of its investigation into his death.

Media contact:

Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca * 604-636-0470